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Profile Information

Full Name:

David Eaves

Display Name:

Eavesy

Job Title:

SEO guy

Company:

The SEO Company

Type of Work:

Business Owner

Location:

Lancaster

Favorite Thing About SEO:

Making money for my clients

Bio:

Hi, my name is David Eaves and I have recently started my own SEO company SEOCO, I have been involved in the internet for the last 5 years working at ISP's and web design companies, starting my own SEO company is the best thing I have ever done!

Google re-penalised my directory about a month or 2 ago, the pagerank was dropped, it was hit with a -40 penalty and lots of the pages were dropped from the index, amazingly I still get quite a few submissions.

They have deindexed lots of pages from lots of directories, even the good ones. Finding cached pages is really difficult, I would stop using them altogether, but linkbait on its own doesn't always kick it.

I totally agree with you about the worst link buyers (the ones who just don't seem to care) getting the best results. The way the algo is it is either the links work or they do not, they do not count against you too much (unless you get penalised). So it is a question of throw enough s... at the wall and some of it is bound to stick. The only ones who seem to get penalized for buying are really bad ones like oceanfinance.co.uk, what has there been like 3 other cases or something? Not a lot that's for sure. Some of the UK SERPs on commercial phrases are pretty bad, next level, hardcore link buying. I am telling you. I spoke to one guy who was buying 20 directory links a day, as his links got accepted he was contacting the directory owners and asking them for a link on the homepage: Some were giving him the link for free, others charged him like £5 or something. He had over 100,000 links going to his homepage and he was 4th on Google for a competitive finance term. June 17, 2008

There is no algo, it is an even bigger scam then ever, a fairly new digger got 170 diggs the other day and never FP'd, where as a top digger - WebCure a digg friend of myne FP'd after 35 diggs. there is no algo it is just the stories that digg staff like on the homepage.

Gizmodo had 4 on the homepage at once the other day. This sucker is never off it: arstechnica.com

Very true, the most succesful piece of linkbait I have ever sorted out was for one of my clients, it never hit the homepage of digg or reddit and only did O.K on SU, but it got picked up by Neatorama and from there 100's of other blogs, it was really simple, just a load of pictures of messy desks, with the title office desks failing the tidy test, the page now ranks nearly on the 1st page of Google for office desks, I hope that in the long run it will help the rest of the sites rankings. Getting picked up by big blogs is the ultimate goal for me, sites like TechCrunch, Boing Boing or SEOmoz for instance, you will normally get a load more links out of it. January 03, 2008

I always like your choices in beats for the intro's, whoever chooses them may have a career in DJing to fall back on. I certainly hope you are right Rand, I hate it when I see digg pages etc. outranking the originals. Here is a prime example of this not working properly:

I promoted this article for Nubricks and it did very well, it got picked up by a bunch of blogs including Spluch which must have a lot of authority. Even though Spluch linked my client (with lame anchor text) and even though my client hit the homepage of digg, propeller and reddit, the spluch article is still outranking them.

This is a sore spot for me, one of my competitors just got them and my site didn't. Many of you big timers talk about these like they are a regular thing, not one of my clients sites has them, they are a luxury thing for the sites that Google feels are more important, I seriously doubt they are sorted out algorithmically. I also feel that UK sites in general are less likely to receive them.

So you think people will just find the content and link to it? In any case the examples that you have provided would still not be needed for this website, if poeple want that sort of information they can find it elsewhere, this website sells Polaris World Property, that sort of information is not going to help him sell property. So other then getting links from it there is no point in him having it on his website (it is no better then the Murcia example). September 20, 2007

In a way I can see where he is coming from with it, he wants the people who visit his site to buy Polaris World property, he doesn't want them to read 101 things to do in Murcia and he doesn't want to give off the impression that his company jokes around. The sort of stuff that can attract links is not the sort of stuff that he wants on his website. Web directories do send the site quite a bit of traffic, I think that even without the link juice there is some benefit in being listed in them, that to me is a lot more ethical (I can't believe I just said that) then making content specifically designed to attract links that is not made for or going to be of any benefit to the people who visit his site. September 20, 2007

I have a real estate client with a very web 2.0 blog who absolutely rinses it for links, he has had links from the New York Times, Channel 4 and many other authority sites, linkbaiting for this site is easy. I have another client who sells Polaris World property (www.polarisproperty.co.uk) this guy just doesn't want anything bar Polaris World news on his site, I have come up with idea after idea and every one gets rejected. Polaris World news is very boaring, I had him contributing at Netscape and we had some success with getting the news stories voted on but that is about as far as it went. September 20, 2007

Creative ways to get links to an FSA governed insurance site? There are none. I do not need any help, ask my clients. Most professional SEOs? Who are you to say who the most professional SEOs are? What are you some kind of SEO god who knows everything? September 20, 2007

Directories are not half as manipulative as services like payperpost, I am seeing many sites buying off topic blog links and seriously rocking the search engine rankings, large companies can get away with it scot free, where as the little guys who are just trying to break bread with their general web directories get penalized (and so do the website owners who have got listed in them indirectly). It is the paid links that have brought these directories down because like you have said there are directories on the list like Aviva that are quality. If Google is going to penalize these directories then they should also penalize large insurance, loan companies etc. who are blatantly going out and buying paid blog links. If Google were to penalize all of the directories that had bought paid links and not penalize sites buying paid links then their SERPs would be controlled by paid links and the top spots for business related phrases would go to shadier sites. Building natural links to a blog is a piece of cake, but building natural links to an FSA governed insurance website or a corporate real estate site is near on impossible, for these sort of sites the only legit way for them to get links is web directory listings. How do you propose these sorts of sites get links? Do these sites not deserve to rank in the search engines? Most of the directories that are listed do not link to spammy sites and most of them organise the sites into relevant categories, if there were no directories then how would Google differentiate between spam sites and corporate business sites? September 20, 2007

Iv'e just had my 1st real result this week indirectly, a guy contacted me the other week with a blog asking me to help him with SEO, Mike from www.environmentalgraffiti.com it's just a blog and not a big money maker or anything, I said look you don't need SEO, I gave him a few pointers telling him to come up with really contreversial posts and stuff, last night he rung me up to thank me, he's had a 1st page of reddit and Digg in two days, whilst he was on the phone to me he got 5 links.

I do think there are definitely some peaches on the directory list you have come up with Rand and I will be refering to it in the future, it's just because I use directories all of the time and test the link value, I could come up with a lot more. Aviva should definitely be on there, if you look at the directory all of the categories are well organised, he has added lot's of websites for free, you can find exactly what you are looking for 9 times out of 10 and all of the listed websites are good quality. I think that if a directory ranks well on Google it is a good sign but it is the quality of the sites it links to that determins the link value, along with domain age and the amount of editorial votes the directory has recieved. G will start showing it some SERP love soon.

Jeff has only very recently changed the page title tag for Aviva and he has done very little in terms of search engine optimisation up untill now, I am not too sure why the directory does not rank very well on Google but I have a feeling Google will start ranking the directory where it deserves to be soon a long with a couple of his other directories. Aviva Directory has got lot's of natural links and has hit the 1st page of Digg several times, regardless of where it ranks in google it certainly has link value in terms of gaining exposure and traffic for your website. The list of directories that you have provided is limited to say the least. July 20, 2007

You've said this one before Rand, I wish all search engines would limit each URL to having two results per search query, sites like eBay can sometimes hold upto 15 of the top 20 search results for certain queries because they have so many different sub-domains. I know it is pretty much impossible to pull off because of sites like Wordpress.com etc. but I can dream. June 17, 2007

I am also a big fan of the 3 click rule for SEO, a sitemap with text links to all category pages will fix most shopping sites A/ it makes it easier for the bots B/ you get another anchor text link for each of the category pages April 19, 2007

I 1st started learning SEO in 2004 when I worked at a company called Iomart, I sold generic domain names with a one page website that would redirect to business websites, the pages never worked on Google. (due to them having no links and due to them redirecting) but sometimes they would work on Yahoo or inktomi search engines, I started to realise that the ones that mentioned the search phrases in the page title tag worked a bit better, when I signed a client up I had to fill in this sheet that asked for the page title tag, description tag, keywords and content (the sheet never used these terms but thats what they were) I sold mobile-phone-deal.co.uk to this mobile phone company and I filled the sheet in something like this:

With the old inktomi submission the site went straight in at no.1 on Yahoo for mobile phone deal, best mobile phone deal and mobile phone deal uk, plus it was on the 1st page for cheap mobile phone, the mobile phone company could not believe it, they were over the moon and they got alot of traffic and business out of it, this gave me the bug and things have sort of progressed from there, I really got into it last year though and it is amazing how much I keep learning every day.

The redirect has been taken away now and the content has been changed, but it used to be what I said it was and it did used to rank where I said it did.

Excellent article 10/10, trustrank is key, I have a very difficult time trying to explain this to some of my clients who know just about enough for it to be dangerous. I am starting a blog on my site and I was going to use a sub domain but I wasn't sure if it would have the trust of my site or not but reading your article I think I will try and set it up domain.com/blog as apposed to blog.domain.com. March 02, 2007

Great post, I have done the majority of the things on your list, I seriously lack web design skills though and I can't figure out how to change my main headers from H2 to H1 without messing up the style completely, I can't get the damm thing to validate either, I would get a designer to do it but I don't trust anyone enough to let them at my site! February 20, 2007

Excellent post and I agree with everthing you have said apart from the brand thing, I don't think you have to have worked with a major brand to be a true SEM professional, I was recently contacted by Rightmove (a major UK brand), this guy calls me up and says "would I be able to speak to your business development manager please" I said "your talking to him, one man band" he then went on to tell me he was from Rightmove and that they were looking for a company to help them with SEO/SEM, I was a little bit shocked at 1st and I said " what, the Rightmove" he said yes but I could see straight away that he was put off by the one man band thing, anyway I convinced him to let me to send him out some info. casestudies etc. and I did and today I got an email saying:

"Thank you for your response to the first stage of the rightmove ITT.

The selection criteria have been very rigorous and we were impressed by the information you provided. However we have compiled a shortlist of companies to invite to the second stage and on this occasion we are unable to include you."

I wasn't at all suprised after the one man band thing, I bet they will end up getting had over big time off some big time UK SEO crooks with a receptionist, I was a little bit disapointed never the less, it would have been a nice one for the old prestige, does this mean that I am not a true SEM professional because I am a one man band who cannot get the major brands in? I have saved small to medium sized businesses 10's of thousands of pounds in online marketing which in my eyes is a bigger achievment then doing the same for a major brand, IMHO the UK SEO companies that get the major brands have it easy and it is the ones who do the business for the small to medium sized businesses that are the true pro's.

I think you guys at SEOmoz must know quite alot about the Google Algo, you build up links without even trying, I found this website because someone in a forum told me about your pageranking tool and said it was a really good way to measure search engine juice, good tool by the way, get that sandbox checker working as well because I think my site is in it, I want to know for sure though, my site is only 3 months old. October 12, 2006